Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Internet: Harassment

baroness brady: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to stop online (1) trolling, (2) harassment, and (3) cyberbullying; and what measures are in place to protect victims of such abuse.

baroness barran: The Online Harms White Paper sets out our plans for world-leading legislation to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. We intend to establish in law a new duty of care on companies towards their users, overseen by an independent regulator. The duty of care will ensure companies have appropriate systems and processes in place to deal with harmful content on their services to keep their users safe. Compliance with this duty of care will be overseen by an independent regulator, which will have a range of enforcement powers. Alongside the White Paper, the government published the Social Media Code of Practice. This voluntary guidance sets out actions that the Government believes social media platforms should take to prevent bullying, insulting, intimidating and humiliating behaviours on their sites. Government has also asked the Law Commission to conduct a second phase of its review of the legal framework around abusive and offensive communications online. This will make specific recommendations for legal reform and is due to report in early 2021. Alongside this, the Law Commission will also consider whether co-ordinated harassment by groups of people online could be more effectively dealt with by the criminal law.

Television: Licensing

baroness brady: To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in ensuring the continuation of the provision of free TV licences for over-75s.

baroness barran: The Digital Economy Act 2017 provides that the future of the concession is the responsibility of the BBC, not of the government. The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport recently met with the Chairman of the BBC Board and the Director-General of the BBC and asked them to do more to help those affected by its decision.

Ministry of Defence

Armed Forces: Private Education

lord hunt of kings heath: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much fundingwas allocated to the Continuity of Education Allowance to fund school places (1) globally, and (2) in England, in each of the last five financial years.

baroness goldie: I refer the noble Lord to the reply given by my hon. Friend, the Minister for Defence Personnel and Veterans (Johnny Mercer), in the House of Commons on 21 October 2019 to the hon. Member for Barnsley East (Stephanie Peacock) in response to Question number 751.



Armed Forces: Private Education
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Armed Forces: Recruitment

lord moonie: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average cost of external advertising for each recruit admitted into the Armed Forces over the last12 months.

baroness goldie: The information is not held in the format requested.The costs of external advertising cannot be disaggregated from wider advertising budgets.

Cabinet Office

Ministerial Policy Advisers: Conduct

lord young of cookham: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any Orders in Council have been made which give authority to special advisers to instruct civil servants.

earl howe: Her Majesty’s Government can confirm no such orders have been made. In accordance with the Special Adviser Code of Conduct, special advisers must not exercise any power in relation to the management of any part of the Civil Service, except in relation to another special adviser.